Free The Summer Cottage by Lily Everett Page A

and shuttered.
    Jessica did her best to keep conversation flowing by offering to help Penny set up
     for the engagement party and asking if they’d set a date yet, while the two brothers
     glared at each other across the table in silence.
    Sighing as Logan slammed into the screened-in porch and flopped down on the glider,
     Jessica leaned against the doorway. The drone of cicadas rose and fell around the
     cottage, accompanied by the song of crickets and the rustle of a breeze through the
     magnolias. It was a beautiful night.
    Too bad her plan to strengthen Logan and Dylan’s relationship was a total bust.
    “That could have gone better,” she observed to the top of Logan’s head as he leaned
     over his knees and fisted his hands in his hair.
    “Where is my phone?” he asked abruptly, glaring up at her.
    That startled her into straightening away from the doorjamb. “It’s in a safe place,
     don’t worry.”
    “Give it to me,” he demanded.
    Jessica crossed her arms over her chest as dismay trickled into her belly. “No. The
     rules haven’t changed.”
    “ Everything is changing.” Standing in a controlled rush, Logan prowled the length of the porch.
     “Too fast.”
    Empathy tightened like a fist around Jessica’s throat. Always an introvert, Logan
     had locked all his tumultuous emotions away in a box when his parents died, and then
     carefully constructed his life so he never had to deal with them in any way.
    Until now. The lid was coming off that box, exposing him to feelings he hadn’t ever
     learned to master, and no matter how hard he worked to suppress them, Jessica didn’t
     think he’d be able to close that box up again. Not entirely.
    The boy who’d learned that deep personal connection only led to pain and loss had
     grown into a man who did his best to hold people at arm’s length. But in the last
     few days, Logan had gotten closer to his brother—and to her—than he’d been to anyone
     in a long time. It was no wonder he was freaking out.
    “It’s late,” she tried. “Come to bed.”
    “I’m not tired.”
    Heart heavy with guilt, as if she were somehow responsible for the fact that Logan
     and his brothers couldn’t seem to find common ground, Jessica attempted a smile. “I
     could tire you out.”
    His eyes gleamed briefly in the moonlight, but he shook his head. “You’re right, it’s
     late. You should get some rest. I’ll follow the rules, have some hot milk, come to
     bed when I think I’ll actually be able to sleep.”
    Jessica hesitated before agreeing. Those were the rules, suggested by sleep experts
     who alleged that spending time lying in bed unable to sleep would only begin a cycle
     of frustration that prevented a person from nodding off. Better, they said, to reset
     the brain by getting up and reading for a bit, then going back to bed to try again.
    And Logan was used to spending most of his time alone. If he needed a few solitary
     hours to process the evening’s events, that was certainly understandable.
    Still, this felt like a step backward. He’d been doing so well, falling asleep every
     night in her arms, that tonight’s nervous energy and restless pacing made her nervous.
    “Okay,” she said slowly. “Wake me up when you come to bed?”
    He nodded, crossing the porch to cradle her face in his large, warm hands. Her pulse
     fluttered like the wings of a moth, unable to resist the lure of the light.
    Logan bent his head and brushed a kiss over her mouth. “Good night,” he whispered
     against her lips.
    “Wake me up, seriously,” she reminded him again.
    “I will,” he promised.
    But when Jessica startled awake hours later, as the silvery light of dawn filtered
     through the curtains, she was alone in the bed. The sheets on Logan’s side were cool
     to the touch, the pillow undented.
    Sliding from the bed, Jessica shivered and wrapped her blue silk robe around her shoulders.
     She padded from the bedroom out to the main room, her bare